City might pay $3 million over fatal shooting

Officer killed unarmed man on CTA platform in 2003

March 04, 2011|By John Byrne, Tribune reporter

The City of Chicago is poised to pay out $3 million to the family of a man fatally shot by a Chicago police officer, bringing an end to an eight-year dispute over why the unarmed man was gunned down on a South Side CTA platform.

The City Council's Finance Committee recommended Friday the settlement be paid to the family of Michael Pleasance.

Pleasance, a 23-year-old from Justice, was unarmed as he stood near what police said was a scuffle in a Red Line station at 95th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway in March 2003. Officer Alvin Weems, who was late for work that day, ended up fatally shooting Pleasance in the head.

Police officials originally said Pleasance struggled with Weems and tried to take away his gun. A year and a half later, the judge in the Pleasance family's lawsuit ordered the release of the CTA security camera video. The Police Department then revised its story and said Pleasance was approaching Weems, as if to attack him, although the video showed no contact was made before Weems fired.

Then, in a December 2006 deposition, Weems admitted he did not fear for his life when he shot Pleasance and did not believe the shooting was justified. But Weems also "contended the shooting was unintentional," according to a city Law Department news release about the proposed settlement.

A jury awarded Pleasance's family $12.5 million in December 2007, but an appellate court overturned that award in 2009. The $3 million payment would allow the city to avoid a retrial.

Craig Mannarino, an attorney for the Pleasance family, said Michael's mother, Pamela, just wants an end to the ordeal.

"For her, the idea of having to try and sit through another trial and relive that was too much to bear," Mannarino said.

Weems was suspended for 30 days. Later, he was promoted to detective, said city Corporation Counsel Mara Georges at Friday's committee meeting.